A schedule of upcoming macroeconomic data releases and central bank events that traders monitor for their potential market-moving impact.
The economic calendar is one of the most widely used free resources in forex trading. It lists every scheduled release of economic data - GDP figures, inflation reports (CPI), employment data (NFP, unemployment rate), PMI surveys, retail sales, trade balance figures, and central bank rate decisions - along with the release date and time, the previous reading, the consensus forecast, and the actual result once published.
Releases are typically flagged by impact level: high-impact events (Fed rate decisions, NFP, CPI) consistently produce the largest and fastest price movements; medium-impact events (retail sales, consumer confidence) produce moderate reactions; low-impact events rarely move markets significantly. The deviation between the actual figure and the consensus forecast is the primary driver of the immediate market reaction - a figure in line with expectations often produces little movement.
Traders use the economic calendar in two distinct ways. Volatility-seeking traders position specifically to capture the price spike immediately after the release - a strategy requiring very tight spreads, fast execution, and ideally fixed spreads that do not widen pre-announcement (or a broker that guarantees fills on pending orders around news). Volatility-avoiding traders close or reduce positions before major releases to eliminate the risk of an adverse spike hitting their stop-loss and then reversing.
Free economic calendars are provided by Forex Factory, Investing.com, and Myfxbook, as well as built into MetaTrader 5 and TradingView. Most are filterable by country and impact level, allowing traders to focus on the events most relevant to the pairs they trade.
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